News

Embassy revamps blow millions up in smoke

Oh, Ambassador, with these lavish refurbishments we are really spoiling you. The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is spending tens of millions a year on tarting up envoys' private residences.

In the past two years alone, 4.4m was spent on revamping the ambassador to Canada's residence in Ottawa, while more than 7m went on restoring the ambassador to the Netherlands' house in the Hague and converting another property there into an embassy building.

Several other houses and apartments have been refurbished at huge cost in recent years, including the refit of the New York apartment of the Irish ambassador to the United Nations. Some 829,000 was used to revamp the property on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

The 4.4m spent on the Canadian ambassador's residence in Ottawa is the largest single spend on a diplomat's house in recent years. The cost dwarfs prices paid for houses on the same road. Neighbouring